Today, I crushed a man's dreams

Some guy in his 20s was just in here looking for a job application. I told him we were going to be hiring seasonal employees soon.

"What's the pay like?" he asked.

"Minimum wage," I said. "You'd be making minimum wage."

"What's minimum wage now?"

"$7.85 per hour."

"Wow," he said disdainfully. "That's bad. That's really bad." As if I have any control over what the pay rate is here.

Sir, you are applying for a temp cashier job at a corporate retailer. It's not exactly an entry-level career position.

Minimum wage isn't there to encourage corporations to pay us more. It's there because said corporations would pay us even less if they were legally allowed to.

It's good he left before I could tell him that he'd only be working maybe six hours a week, or that he'd be better off looking for a job in a call center.

REALITY: IT'S HARSH